Increased Use of Social Media in eCommerce by Springbot

There’s no denying it: Social media is a must-use tool for eCommerce stores. Studies show that over 70 percent of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand to others if it provides a good social media customer experience, and adults aged 18 to 34 are 95 percent more likely to follow a brand on social networks compared with other age groups. So naturally, eCommerce stores are quickly catching on, with social media becoming a safe bet for marketing dollars wisely spent.

But how do you leverage social media to grow your eCommerce business? The fact is that you need to come up with a strategy that addresses not only the desires but also the expectations of the consumer.

If more and more online shoppers turn to social media for inspiration, reviews and customer service, then you have to implement social marketing tools that address all three. In other words, what was once considered an added bonus for social shoppers — e.g. social customer service and shoppable content — is now an expectation.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the thought of taking on another marketing task, don’t fret. The right eCommerce store integration tools will put you in an enviable position to be able to better capture conversions and encourage brand engagement.

Tools Smart Marketers Are Using

The world of eCommerce marketing changes every day, usually at a pretty rapid pace. There are several broad trends emerging with regard to how the most successful eCommerce stores are marketing their products via social. Here are a few brand-new and tried-and-true methods you should be using too.

Shoppable Content — These days, simply putting your products up on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest isn’t enough. Shoppers not only want to be able to easily view and interact with your products, but they also want to be able to buy them right then and there. This helps both grow your bottom line and improve your customer experience. Shoppable Instagram tools allow you to create a landing page with featured products, shortening the path to purchase.

Trackable Links — An important part of social media marketing is ensuring that you know exactly where your revenue is coming from. Use trackable links so that you can easily check how much revenue that’s generated on your store is coming through the link. In other words, you can add a trackable link to an email or Facebook post to see how many people clicked, purchased or engaged in another way.

Social Hub — You’re only as good as your best social media marketing tools. What marketers need is a central social media hub that allows them to create, schedule and analyze social content all in one convenient place. Make sure to add eCommerce analytics tools that let you easily look at all your social campaigns and efforts from one convenient dashboard.

Customer Service — As we mentioned earlier, consumers now expect brands to provide fast, personalized customer service via social media. How are the biggest and best eCommerce retailers nailing social customer service? It all comes down to providing a tailored yet efficient approach. For many brands, that means integrating chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) systems into private messaging. For others, it’s having a dedicated social media team whose sole purpose is to respond to consumers via Twitter, Facebook and more.

Video Marketing — If you haven’t already considered adding some video content to your social media pages, then it’s time to take a look at the stats. By and large, consumers favor video content over text. They’re more likely to watch, click and share when videos are unique and engaging. This year, experts predict that we’ll be seeing brand-new video marketing trends, such as 360-degree video, virtual reality video and live video. Marketers will spend more time creating platform-specific content too, like square-shaped videos for Instagram.

Of course, businesses are putting a whole lot of clout into social media advertising compared with other channels. It’s not surprising, since social can have a significantly higher return on investment (ROI) than traditional marketing, even when you consider the use of paid ads.

About Springbot

Springbot provides advanced eCommerce marketing technology for small to medium-sized retailers. We make the overwhelming task of running and tracking multi-channel marketing campaigns ridiculously simple, from email and social marketing, to online ads, Amazon Marketplace and more. The key is Springbot’s integration with Big Commerce, Magento and Shopify to deliver the power of data management, marketing automation and analytics. We then take that information and make data-driven marketing recommendations specifically tailored for your needs.

Description: Considering upping your eCommerce social media strategy? Take a look at some of the smartest and most cost-effective ways you can use social to build a better customer experience and grow your bottom line.